Writing

I describe my writing as thrillers with a tech edge, but I could equally refer to a geek edge1.

I grew up watching SF on screen (Star Trek, Star Wars, ET, Gremlins etc) and that interest stayed with me, even as I moved into harder-edged stuff by Stephen King and Tom Clancy. I enjoy comic books that take their characters and worlds seriously (Watchmen and Dark Knight Returns seem to be the turning points in the medium), have played the odd computer game and enjoy classic rock music.

While my chosen genre is the thriller, that interest in techy/geeky topics has stayed with me, so you'll find hints of it coming through in the things my characters like, or the occasional name that's got a throwaway in-joke reference.

With that background, I find it both annoying and amusing the way that mainstream media treats geeky topics. While lots of recent hit movies have a comic book, computer game or SF background; while the new love interests in romance novels all seem to be vampires or werewolves; while the current hot topic on Twitter is a robot driving around on Mars; while computer gamers are now just as likely to be professional women than nerds in their parents' basement; while Peter Jackson appears to be planning his sixth Tolkien movie; lots of stories still find the opportunity to poke fun at the geeks that inhibit the core of this world.

But, really, most people are geeks - the issue is what they're geeky for.

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The dead woman in the dark corner of the university campus looked to be about 22 or 23.

The stab wounds on Jewell McQueen’s chest, one either side of her tracksuit’s zip, were enough to ensure this case would be front page news. Detective Jack Deckard knew the two objects next to the body would really cause a storm: a wicked-looking hunting knife stabbed through a blood-smeared playing card.

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I recently competed in a trail run - a rainy, nighttime trail run, in fact.

It was in a mountain bike park, so involved a 19 minute hill climb, 4.5 minute ridgeline run, then another 19 minute stretch that was an overall descent but undulated a lot.

I've been a runner for nearly 20 years, completing a handful of half marathons (never quite having the stamina to do a full one), but I don't do much road running (beep beep!) now, preferring to go off-road.

The differences between trail running and pavement pounding are both mental and physical. Yes, it's usually hillier and slippery, but the real difference is the concentration required. In road running, you can get into a rhythm and let your feet carry you along, only needing to think about the occasional curb or to look out for traffic.

When trail running, the perspective is totally different.

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Like many readers, I came to Michael Crichton through Jurassic Park, although I read the book well before I saw the movie. His books are good, fun reads, the epitome of the techno-thriller. But some of his later ones, especially Next and Prey, sometimes felt to me a little like J-Park-lite clones written by other authors trying to emulate Crichton.

Micro, Crichton's last novel - posthumously finished by Richard Preston (writer of The Hot Zone and brother of Douglas Preston) - started off feeling very similar, as it perfunctorily introduced a group of characters who had a mixture of skills that would undoubtedly turn out to be useful as the plot played out. Shrunk to tiny size (about 1-inch high) it seemed clear they'd fight some bugs and avoid being stepped on to re-enlarge themselves 300 pages later, with a bit of a don't mess with nature you don't understand message.

As I read, I started feeling uninvolved. Cardboard characters doing dumb things don't do a lot for me.